Manufactured tobacco.



- w. A. FRETWELL.

L. IIIIIIIHIIVIMM."

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE'. l

XVILLIAM A. FRETWELL, OF SOUTH BOSTON, VIRGINIA.

MANUFACTU RED TOBACCO.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 702,130, dated J une 10, 1902.

Application led February 15, 1902- Serial No. 94,231.

(No model.)

To all whom t ina/y concern:

Beit known that I, WILLXAM A. FRETWELL, a citizen of the United States, residing at South Boston, in the county of Halifax and State of Virginia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Manufactured Tobacco, of which the following is a specification.

Manufactured tobacco heretofore has meant stemmed leaves of tobacco cuttings, trash tobacco, refuse or scrap tobacco Amade up into plugs, lumps, twists, dac., with wrappers on, and later flavored free-leaf tobacco, a partial manufacture retaining the stem intact. The objection of the plug, lump, twist, dsc., has been and is that it often has a beautiful wrapper, while the interior of same is of a low grademean ings, cuttings, inferior goods, unclean and unhealthy, make up the interior. The objection to the flavored free leaf, patented May 30, 1899, No. 625,970, is that the whole stem makes it bulky and the large end (buttend) carries more or less grit into the chew.

My invention relates to improvements in manufactured tobacco; and the objects of my improvements are, rst, to make a clean leaf chew and to simplify the operation, so that a farmer can readily manufacture his crop at home with his Wash-pot and tobacco-barn and compete with the product of the expensiveplant on the market and at the same time make more acceptable and salable goods. I attain these results by the operations illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 shows a leaf of tobacco with the butt-end of the stem removed. Fig. 2 shows the leaf folded once around the hand, when the stem is broken at o.; and Fig. 3 shows the butt-end pulled out. Fig. 4 shows the entire leaf folded up and the blade en ds c c tucked in under the fold. Fig. 5 shows the finished leaf as an article of manufacture.

In the operation of manufacturing plugs, lumps, twists, 85e., the stock is first cased, (sweetened and flavored,) then stemmed, then wrapped, then dried, then drawn, and of times wrapped and dried and drawn again,

leaf and trash, scraps, sweep-` then shaped, (by light pressing into iron inolds,) then greased, then pressed into boxes, then stamped, when it is ready for the market. My entire operation after casing is folding the leaf around the hand on ce, when the buttend half of the stem is pulled out, then tucking the ends c cof the butt blades of leaf under the fold, then drying, drawing, and pressing lightly into suitable receptacles, when it is stamped and ready for the trade; but the farmer stops at tucking the blade ends under the fold and dries it, when it is wrapped iu paper packages and stamped and ready for peddling off of wagons.

Similar letters refer to similar parts in the several views.

Iflrst take the tail end (or small end) of the cased leaf in the left hand and fold it around the hand once, asin Fig. 2. I then break the stem at a, pulling out the butt-end, as shown in Fig. 3. I then fold the blade ends c c in Fig. around the fingers, as ar.- row points in Fig. 2, and tuck the said blade ends c c under the fold, as shown in Fig. 4:. The fold is then drawn off the fingers and struck down on the bench or table with the hand, which finishes the operation, as shown in Fig. 5. It is then dried, when it is ready for sale by the farmer peddling it to consumers; but to prepare it for store sales it must be drawn and pressed into wood boxes. It is a fact that most good operatorsin stemming leaf-tobacco draw the leaf around the hand in pulling out the stem. I merely do this same thing (shown in Figs. 2 and 3) and tuck the blade ends inside the fold (shown in Fig. 4) and get a completed article, structurally in Fig. 5. The half of the stem shown in Fig. l folded inside gives the finished piece a core strength to remain in shape. Because of this stem in the center and the blade ends c c tucked in under the fold I dispense with wrapping or wrapper. It is clear that by adding the tucking to the operation of stemming ordinarily I get the finished structure.

In my former patent, No. 625,970, granted me May 30, 1899, the butt-end of the stem is ob jeotionable to the higlrolass trade and debars ing the blade ends tucked between the folds, sales to that class, it being not only bulky, nnwrapped, as a finished manufactured ar- Io but also carrying grit into the Chew. ticle.

Havin thus described my invention what 1 1 1 5 I claim assnew, and desire to secure by Letters WM" A' B RM1 WELL' Patent, is* Vitnesses:

A sweetened or flavored leaf of tobacco, H. J. WATKINS,

partly stemmed, and folded upon itself, haV- J. C. LAWSON. 

